When we installed the hood on my 48 Chevy Sedan Delivery the lower hood hinge bolts into the hood will not tighten. I chased the threads before we started but I have to assume that either the nuts are turning in the hood or the bolts are stripped (new Chevs of the 40s bolts). Anyone had this happen and what was the fix?
Also, the bolts I got from Chevs of the 40s have 7/16" shoulders and we had to drill out the hinges to 29/64" because the hinge holes were smaller. What's up with that? Anyone had that problem?
Thanks for any advice on this frustrating issue.

Sounds like the bolts may be metric sized. I've had that happen with chinese repro crap. I usually just go to the hardware store and match the old bolt or get the size I know I need. Might not be 100 point "correct' but they work.

Yep SCREW the reproduction crap. You may even need to go to a larger bolt now if those threads are damaged. I seriously doubt the nut it turning if you are able to remove the bolt. If the nuts were spinning it wouldn't be smooth, the bolt would turn a little at a time jumping a few degrees of rotation if that makes any sense. It wouldn't turn smoothly that's for sure. And for it to happen with two of them that you just happen to be putting new bolts in, not likely.

I think the previous post is right on the money, either they are metric OR they are simply junk reproduction and not accurately sized or threaded so it stripped out.

It may be too late if the threads in that nut are stripped out. But the next step I would take is get the proper bolt that it WAS what ever size they were 5/16, 3/8 what ever with the proper thread count, use one of the other bolts that is working well and use a thread gauge or just a nut and find out exactly what they are. See if one of those nuts will screw on your new repro bolts. If they do, (I doubt it) then it sounds like the threads in your fixed nuts may be stripped. If that is the case re-tapping it again and putting a quality bolt in there with some lock tight may do it. OR, drill it out to the next size and change the bolt to a larger bolt. Put a piece of tubing over the drill so it will only go thru the nut and not hitting the hoods skin!

But you can make a shouldered bolt if you want, at a good hardware store they well sleeves off all sizes that you could modify if need be and make your own shouldered bolt.

My local REAL hardware store (not a "McHome" store like Lowes or Home Depot) has a bunch of different sizes for most any need.

I am only suggesting this if you really need to, getting new bolts from a different supplier or using the old ones may be a fix too.

Thanks for the reply. We checked the threads on the new bolts with the tap before chasing the threads in the hood nuts. I will try to remove the bolts and see what's up. May post later this week. Thanks again.

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